The Meat Queue, 1946/ printed 1990s

Authenticity stamp with pencil title and signed by Rex Dupain verso

Provenance
Dupain Estate
Rex Dupain, the artist’s son Private collection, Sydney

Image size: 43 x 48 cm

Framed size: 72.5 x 81 cm

This photograph is part of a series commissioned by the Department of Information. While classified as documentary photography, it is not necessarily a social commentary. The image captures the postwar economic food rationing in Australia with Dupain’s signature modernist approach.

In a 1991 inter view with Helen Ennis at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Dupain recalled: “ We were doing a story on queues after the war…queues for buses, vegetables, fruit . I just happened to come across this butcher shop in Pitt Street …Here they were, all lined up, and I went around it, took a number of pictures, ultimately ending up with this sort of architectural approach with four or five females all dressed in black with black hats, not looking so happy about the world. Suddenly, one of them breaks the queue when I’m focused up, all ready to go—pure luck.”

The composition’s solidity is enhanced by the linear arrangement of the figures, captured from a mid- distance perspective beneath a meat coupon scale. This scale, essential for rationing , symbolises postwar austerity. The women’s dark coats contrast with the central figure’s lighter- coloured coat , forming a balanced composition. The black hats, aligned in arhythmic wave, visually echo the row of meat hooks above. The unexpected motion of a woman breaking from the queue injects spontaneity into an otherwise structured scene.

Despite its documentary nature, the image is primarily defined by form rather than content showcasing Dupain’s modernist aesthetic through black-and-white shapes arranged in shallow space.

Exhibitions
Max Dupain Retrospective 1930-1980, Ar t Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 29 August – 28 September 1980 (another example).

Four Photographers, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2 June – 19 August 1990 (another example).

Federation: Australian Ar t and Society 1901-2001, National Gallery of Australia , Canberra , 8 December 2000 – 11 February 2001, and touring (another example).

Australia Postwar Photo documentary, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 12 June – 8August 2004 (another example).

Soul of a City: Modernism and Sydney Photography 1930 to 1950, Delmar Gallery, Sydney, 17 May – 15 June 2014.

After the War, Australian War Memorial, Canberra, 8 October 2018 – 8 October 2019 (another example).